A Dark and Stormy Night
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: There are times when the plan does NOT come together, and sometimes that's just finding a hotel to spend the night at.
1. Chapter 1

A Dark and Stormy Night

"Are we there yet?"

Hannibal and B.A. glanced to one another in the front seat of the van as they drove along in the night. It was a question _expected_ to be asked, but never they would've thought, from the person who actually asked it. Hannibal turned in his seat to look at the two men in the back of the van; Murdock was curled up in his seat engrossed in a book of scary stories that he'd been reading since dinner, but Face sat upright in his seat and looked straight ahead, with eyes tired but hopeful.

"No we're not 'there yet' Face," Hannibal told him, "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me is it's late, I'm tired, I want to go to sleep and I'd like to be able to do it _without_ getting carsick."

"Hey Face," B.A. said in a warning tone, "You throw up in my van and I'm gonna break your face."

"I'm too tired for that to intimidate me either," Face insisted, "Come on, Hannibal, can't we stop somewhere for the night?"

Hannibal sighed but turned front in his seat again and said to the man driving, "He's got a point, B.A., we've been on the road for 10 hours and the last four have been nonstop. Let's find a hotel we can stop in at for the night."

"Fine," B.A. grunted, "But Faceman better be able to get us some good rooms."

"_Anything_ to get out of having to spend another night crammed in this van with the rest of you," Face replied snidely.

Hannibal rolled down the window on his side and stuck his head out to get a look at the sky. "We may be getting out of here at just the right time, looks like it's going to storm." He sucked in a large inhale and added, "Smells like it too."

Murdock was completely oblivious to the conversation, his eyes were wide as he took in every word of the story he was reading, an old Japanese story about a furniture maker who couldn't bear to part with a leather chair he'd made, so he took out the insides and traveled around in the chair, and the woman who bought the chair was an editor who had received a large manuscript by delivery, except it wasn't a manuscript, it was a confession by the man who was occupying the inside of her chair.

"Murdock!"

"Ha! Wha—" Murdock shot up in his seat and looked frontward and realized Hannibal had been saying something, "What'd you say, Colonel?"

"I said we're at the hotel, time to get our stuff and head in," Hannibal told him.

"Oh, right," Murdock recovered from his jolt and picked up his book.

* * *

><p>The rain was just starting to come down when everybody piled out of the van, by the time they got in the hotel's front doors they could hear it pouring straight down outside, and were thankful that they were already in where it was dry. Face was talking to the woman at the front desk trying to work his charm to get them some good rooms for the night. While they waited to see what the outcome was, Murdock paced around the lobby and looked around at everything. It was a small hotel, nothing great by any means, but it was the best they could come up with on short notice, probably 3 stars at best. But that could work in their favor too because the cheaper the hotels were, the more lax the security was so it was easier for them to slip in and out without anyone really noticing.<p>

They turned the corner and headed to the sitting area while they waited for Face to wrap everything up. Murdock stopped frozen in his tracks and felt his heart jump to his throat when he saw in the middle of the room was a large, black, leather chair. And before he could even fully process his thoughts, he saw Hannibal move to sit down in it and he screamed out, "No Hannibal, don't sit there!"

Hannibal froze halfway to sitting in the chair, he straightened his spine and asked the captain, "Is something wrong, Murdock?"

"Uh…no," he replied, "Just don't sit there, okay Colonel?"

Hannibal looked to B.A., then back to Murdock, shrugged cluelessly and said, "Alright, Murdock."

B.A. leaned over towards Hannibal and murmured low, "Hey Hannibal, I think it's getting about that time again."

"Time for what?" Hannibal asked as he sat down on the couch and fished a new cigar out of his pocket.

"Time to get Murdock back to the crazy hospital," B.A. answered, "He's acting crazier than usual, and I didn't even think that was possible."

Hannibal chuckled and replied, "You're overreacting, B.A."

"Oh yeah? You think so?" B.A. asked.

"I'm positive," Hannibal said.

"Only fools are positive," B.A. told him.

"You sure about that, B.A.?" Hannibal asked.

"I'm—hey! You tried to trick me, sucker."

"Almost succeeded too," Hannibal said with an amused smirk on his face.

Murdock was slowly circling around the leather chair in the lobby to observe any signs of movement in it, when Face came back with some keys.

"Well we got in right under the buzzer," he told the others, "They're just about full up, I got us the last two rooms available."

"Good work, kid," Hannibal said, "How many beds?"

"Ah…two," Face answered less enthusiastically.

"In each room?" B.A. asked in a borderline threatening tone.

"No, two beds total," Face said.

Both Hannibal and B.A. grunted when they heard that. Murdock stopped pacing around the chair and asked, "Both doubles I hope?"

"Yeah," Face said, "That's the one upside to it, _that_ and the rooms are right next to each other, so if there's any trouble we'll be right by each other."

"Well that's _something_ I suppose," Hannibal responded, "What floor?"

"Second floor," Face answered as he handed Hannibal one of the room keys.

"Alright, let's head on up," Hannibal told his men.

Murdock stayed with the little baggage they'd brought in, and dug through one of them until he found what he was looking for, a small crowbar. He stayed behind from the others long enough that he was able to sneak back to the lobby, and since it was a low key place, eventually the woman at the front desk went off somewhere else and the lobby sat empty. So Murdock tiptoed back over to the leather chair, went around it a couple of times to check for any sign of sudden movement on the chair's part, and when it didn't move, he swung the crowbar like a bat and hit it right in the back. Nothing. He went around and hit the chair in the front, again, nothing. So then he tried the right side, then the left side, still nothing. For good measure he hit the chair a few more times, still nothing, not even a moan.

By that time, the others had figured out that Murdock hadn't gone with them to their rooms, so they came doubling back down the stairs to the lobby, and showed up just in time to see Murdock start to walk away with the crowbar in his grip like a baseball bat; then out of nowhere he spun on his heel and hit the chair once more with enough force that it fell on its side.

"Okay," Murdock said as he turned to the others, "I think it's safe to sit in now."

B.A. just rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath, "Crazy fool."


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay," Hannibal said as the four of them piled into one of their reserved rooms to look the place over and one by one everybody dropped their bags on the floor, "The first thing we need to do while we're here is…"

Murdock cut him off and offered his own suggestion, "Take the beds apart and check for dead bodies."

That got everybody's attention.

"What?" Face asked as he spun on his heel to look at the pilot.

"What're you jabbering about now you crazy fool?" B.A. asked.

Murdock went over to the bed and started pulling at the bedstead, "I mean it. Haven't you been reading the papers? It's happening all the time, a family checks into a room for a nice quiet weekend on vacation, they get ready to leave, they get everything packed up and BAM," he smacked a balled up fist against an open palm, "There's a corpse playing hide and seek with them under the bed."

"Oh you've _got_ to be kidding," Face said, sounding slightly sickened by that possibility.

"Uh-uh," Murdock said as he tried dragging the bed across the floor, "It happens in all types hotels, all over the country."

"In that case let's do what he says and take it apart and check it out," Hannibal told the others, "I don't _mind_ getting a group rate, but I _do_ mind when that group involves an uninvited member we didn't know about." He stood back and told B.A. and Face, "Take it apart, get the mattress off, take the bedding off, take everything off."

"Hannibal, are you nuts?" Face asked as he rolled up his sleeves.

Hannibal half shrugged and half smirked, "We can always have the maid come in and put everything back the way it was, that _is_ what they're paid for after all."

"This is ridiculous," Face said as he went over to the bed and got down on his knees, "I don't even know where we're supposed to start."

They took all the covers off the mattress, separated the mattress from the box spring, then the box spring from the bedstead, they flipped the mattress, flipped the box spring, didn't find anything.

"Now we'll do the bed in the other room," Hannibal said.

"What's this 'we' stuff?" Face wanted to know.

Regardless, they went next door and did it again. Tore off all the covers, separated the mattress, the box spring, the bedstead, flipped everything, found nothing. Then Hannibal got on the phone and called down for housekeeping to come up and clean up the mess in their rooms.

"They're going to hate you for that," Face said.

"Ehh," Hannibal shrugged dismissively, "Doesn't hurt to keep them on their toes once in a while. Alright," he addressed his men, "We're each going to be two to a room and more crucially, two to a bed, so let's get the sleeping arrangements sorted out _now_."

"I'm taking the room next door," Face said, "It's closest to the elevators."

Murdock started screeching in a high pitched voice and began squawking and flapping his wings.

"Very funny, Murdock," Face said, "What if Lynch links us here in the middle of the night?"

"Then the quickest getaway would be a two story drop right out the window," Hannibal answered. He decided he would decide _for_ the others and said, "Face and I'll take this room, B.A., you and Murdock can take the other."

"Are you nuts, Hannibal?" B.A. asked, "I'm not going to get any sleep with this crazy fool as a roommate."

"Good," Hannibal said, "If Lynch _would_ tail us here, I wouldn't want you to be in too deep a sleep."

"Oh come on, B.A., it'll be fun," Murdock said.

B.A. looked like hew as about to go in for a root canal with absolutely _nothing_ to dull the pain, "No it ain't."

"Oh sure it will," Murdock replied ecstatically.

Hannibal brought a quick halt to the fun and addressed everybody, "Let's get one thing straight. We just traded one enclosed space for a couple new ones, and we're going to be in each other's company all night. We just wrapped up one job that took us 3 days into the desert in the scorching heat, back to back with two previous jobs in which we had to get from cost to cost of this fine country of ours in record breaking time, we barely scraped in any time to sleep or eat, but what we did _not_ do during the whole week and what we _are_ going to do now is get cleaned up so the rest of our road trip back to L.A. _and_ our time here tonight does _not_ consist of the four of us stinking to high heaven like a pack of decaying hyenas."

"How would you…" Face started to ask, but Murdock jabbed him to shut up before he got the full question out.

"Everybody head on out to your own rooms and get a shower, we're going to be leaving first thing in the morning," Hannibal told them. It was late, they were all tired, him especially, and he was in no mood to have to referee 3 grown men tonight of all nights.

B.A. and Murdock returned to the room next door, then the housekeeping maids came up and remade the beds and inquired if they were in need of any other service.

"Yep, but you're in the wrong business for it," was all Hannibal had to say before he marched into the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Hannibal was feeling slightly refreshed after his shower, and changed into a pair of pajamas while he waited for Face to finish up with his shower. It was late, he was tired, he crawled into the bed and hoped to be dead to the world very soon. It had been a good week's business but now that it was over he was exhausted and hoped to put it all behind him like a bad dream. Outside he could hear the rain beating down against the windows. It hadn't let up since they'd checked into the hotel and at this rate would probably fall all night. Fine with him, they were too low to the ground for any potential leaks in the roof to be a problem for them.<p>

He hadn't had a chance to fall asleep yet when he heard the bathroom door open, he looked at the clock and noticed it was only a few minutes later. "What's the matter, Face? I seem to recall your nightly beauty ritual takes almost an hour."

"Hardy-har-har Hannibal," Face was not amused, "I don't know how you lasted in that shower for 20 minutes, that water is ice cold and hard as sandpaper."

"Hmm," Hannibal closed his eyes and turned over on his side of the bed, "My water was fine."

"Oh well doesn't _that_ just figure?" Face asked.

"What're you griping about?" Hannibal wanted to know, "Usually you're the one who steals the hot water from everyone else."

"Good_night_, Hannibal!" Face said shortly as he got on the other side of the bed.

"Goodnight," Hannibal dismissively retorted, already half asleep.

Hannibal felt Face jerk the covers more over towards his side of the bed and caught a large draft from the movement. But he ignored it, figuring they'd both be asleep before long.

He was wrong.

They both got up in the bed when they heard somebody knocking at the door.

"Hannibal?" Murdock opened the door before asking, "Can I come in?"

"Of all the," Face started to say.

"What is it, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.

"Ah…" Murdock stepped into the room dressed for the night in his pajamas and asked, "Would it be alright if I stayed in here with you tonight?"

"What's wrong with _your_ room, Murdock?" Hannibal wanted to know.

"Oh, namely a 230 pound Angry Mudsucker who's threatening to smother me in my sleep," Murdock said.

"You really think B.A.'s going to resort to killing you with a pillow, Murdock?" Face asked, tired and half asleep.

"Ah no, I think he's going to roll over on me in his sleep and crush me to death," Murdock answered, "Especially since he's already threatened to do so, and he _has_ promised he'd have all his gold on at the time for that extra 50 pounds of weight with which to do so."

"What'd you do to him _now_, Murdock?" Hannibal asked, regarding his captain with only one eye still open.

"I didn't do anything to him," Murdock put his hands up defensively, "It's not my fault the big guy's so sensitive."

"B.A.?" Face managed to get his eyes wide open at that one.

Murdock walked over to the bed and explained to the two men, "I am trying to help the big guy work through his denial of Billy's existence, but he is too hostile to work with yet."

"Oh brother," Face said as he flopped his head back against the pillows.

"Alright, _alright_," Hannibal snapped as he addressed his lieutenant and captain, "Face, you switch places with Murdock and go to his room for the night."

"Do I have to?" Face whined.

"_Yes_," Hannibal remarked.

"Alright," Face pushed back the covers and reluctantly got up.

"Murdock," Hannibal said, "You get in bed and _go to sleep_."

Murdock nodded, "Alright, Hannibal."

"I'm starting to think I'd rather sleep in the van," Face murmured as he padded out of the room and closed the door behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright, Murdock," Hannibal said as the captain walked over to the bed, "It's late, I'm tired, I don't have time for your neuroses tonight, let's just go to sleep, alright?"

"Sure, Colonel, sure," Murdock said, "Sounds good to me too, been a long day, I just want to get them eyes closed boy."

Hannibal was already halfway there, but when Murdock got on the bed, Hannibal noticed that something felt a little off. He opened his eyes and sat up and saw that Murdock had climbed into the other side of the bed wearing his pajamas, but he still had his Chuck Taylors on his feet.

"Murdock," Hannibal looked to his captain.

"Hmm?" Murdock didn't seem to catch on.

Hannibal pointed towards his feet, "You going to bed with your shoes on?"

Murdock sat up and said to Hannibal, "You know I can't run in my bare feet."

As tired as he was, Hannibal was about ready to jump up and hit the ceiling, "Run from what!?"

"I don't know," Murdock replied, "_Anything_, Lynch, the MPs, if a fire breaks out, if there's a murder in the hotel, if the Jolly Green Giant comes stomping through here in the middle of the night, just any little thing."

Hannibal let out a disgruntled sound and flopped his head back against the pillows, looked up to the ceiling and asked, "Murdock, what _am_ I going to do with you?"

"I really don't know, Colonel," Murdock answered sincerely, "Even the doctors at the V.A. are running out of ideas."

Hannibal pulled the covers up over his head and grumbled something that Murdock couldn't make out. He pulled the covers back down under his chin again and told the pilot, "Go to sleep, Murdock."

Murdock nodded tiredly, "Okay, Hannibal."

"No talking in your sleep," Hannibal told him.

"Alright."

"Don't grumble," he added.

"Well you're not leaving me a lot of options," Murdock complained.

"_Go_-to-_bed_, Murdock," Hannibal strongly advised him.

"Okay," Murdock sank down under the covers and suddenly became very quiet.

The hotel room became quiet, but the weather outside did _not_. Where before there had just been a continuous rain pouring down, _now_ there was rumbling thunder high up above, coupled with some exceptionally bright lightning. Hannibal opened one eye to take notice of this, and rolled it around in his head with an accompanying muffled sigh, and closed his eye again and tried to get to sleep anyway. Despite his attempt however, it was obvious that wasn't on the schedule for tonight. Every time he was just about to succumb to sleep, there was a deafening clap of thunder above that sounded like a truck load of sheet metal falling out of the sky and crashing down on the world outside the hotel. A small miracle for the night, Murdock seemed completely oblivious to the noise. That was, until they heard a knock at the door.

"Hey Hannibal, can I come in?" Face asked as he was already showing himself in.

"What _now_?" Hannibal asked as he turned over, pushed up on his knees and punched his pillow.

"Do you mind if I stay with you guys tonight?" Face asked, "B.A. must be dreaming about taking karate because he's been kicking me in his sleep for the last half hour, I bet I'm already going to be all black and blue tomorrow, but if I try staying in that room with him for the next six hours, he's going to _kill_ me."

"How tempting," Hannibal murmured. There wasn't much to consider though. He moved over towards Murdock, forcing the pilot to move over closer towards the edge, and pulled the covers back on the other side of the bed and told his lieutenant, "Alright, come on in."

"Thanks, Hannibal," Face said.

"Don't thank me," Hannibal told him, "Reserve that judgment for tomorrow morning. Get in, and everybody shut up and go to sleep."

Face scurried over to the bed and jumped in alongside Hannibal and pulled the covers up fast and tight like a little kid who thought the boogeyman was after him, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Moe," Hannibal addressed the captain and added, "Goodnight, Larry, now everybody go to sleep and above all else _be quiet_."

There were a couple quiet murmurs of affirmation from his men, now it looked like they might actually get some sleep, Hannibal sincerely hoped so.

* * *

><p>Even though the three of them were in very fair shape, three grown men trying to squeeze into a regular double bed was no easy fit, especially when some of them had a tendency to toss and turn in their sleep. Right now Hannibal was cursing his decision to sleep in the middle of the bed, <em>why<em> had he done that? Now he was on both receiving ends of jabbing elbows and scratching feet, not to mention rubber soles and canvas heels, and bobbing heads. Maybe _these_ two were able to get some sleep making the bed as comfortable as a night on an old mule path riding a drunken jackass, but Hannibal knew _he_ certainly wasn't. He did his best to push them back here and there to get them off of him and back to their own corners of the bed, but they'd never stay. Finally, Hannibal decided if he wasn't going to sleep, neither were they, he took advantage his centered position and bounced himself up off the mattress at the right time, long enough for Murdock and Face to roll over where he would've been, and he pressed his weight down on top of them.

The captain and the lieutenant came to groaning, wondering what was going on.

"Hannibal?" Face asked confusedly.

"Well it ain't the tooth fairy," Hannibal answered as he used his upper hand to bounce up and down on top of them, letting them feel his weight pressing against them for a change.

"Ouch!" Murdock complained as they crawled out from under him.

Hannibal flopped back against the mattress with a chuckle. To even the score, he rolled over towards one end of the bed and rolled up on top of somebody who was not appreciating it.

"Who've I got here?" he asked, turning on his side and pressing down on his captive with his hip.

"Me!" Face groaned.

"Well that's _one_," Hannibal replied before rolling off of the squashed lieutenant.

"Alright," he said, becoming slightly more serious now, "Everybody stay on your own side of the bed and go back to sleep."

"Alright, Colonel," Murdock said quietly and groggily.

* * *

><p>Maybe after that, Hannibal was just too tired to notice anything else that went on that night. Or maybe it was just that nothing else <em>did<em> happen that night. All he knew was that the new thing he _did_ know was that it was hours later, he couldn't hear the rain anymore, no thunder, and through the drapes, he could see that it was lighter outside now than it had been in the night. His back was sore from staying on it for several hours without moving much, by preference he was a stomach sleeper, more comfortable, but that was beside the point. He craned his neck and looked from one side, and to the other, and he almost laughed. Murdock was flat on his stomach with his hands shoved under his pillow and one foot stuck under the covers and the other one hanging off the edge of the bed. And Face's whole body was half on and half off the edge of the bed, if Hannibal so much as blew on him, he'd certainly fall on the floor.

Hannibal raised his arm above his head to look at his watch. Going on 6 in the morning. No point in delaying the inevitable, they weren't going to get anymore sleep than they already had.

"Alright, guys," he said as he reached out with both arms and grabbed them at their shoulders, "Time to get up."

Slowly, reluctantly, the other two men came to and got out of bed. Face and Hannibal got dressed for the day while Murdock went to the window and looked out.

"Nice and damp out today," he noted.

"No wonder after that downpour last night," Hannibal responded as he put his jacket on, "Let's go get B.A. up."

"I'll let you take care of that, Hannibal," Murdock said, "The big guy has a tendency to smash the alarm clock when _it_ wakes him up."

Undeterred by that little factoid, Hannibal led the way to the room next door. To their surprise, B.A. was already up and changed for the day, and surprisingly, in something of a good mood.

"Hey Hannibal," he said, "I _like_ this hotel, this' the _best_ night's sleep I've had in _weeks_."

Face and Murdock looked to each other and just groaned in disbelief.

They gathered up their luggage, headed down the stairs, Face went to the front desk and got them checked out, and they headed out into the early city morning. Murdock brought up the rear, and paused in the lobby to look back one final time at the now slightly battered black leather chair, still vacant. He walked around it once, gave it a brief onceover, then patted the top of it like a dog, then promptly followed the guys out of the hotel and out to the van.

A/N: This was originally going to be a oneshot story but I managed to stretch it out to 3 chapters, though I get the impression some readers were anticipating it to last longer than it did. Also regarding the fact that this did not turn out to be as much of a spooky story as some people were hoping for, I apologize, and shall try to do better next time. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


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